Yesterday, we took one more giant step in getting ready for our trip south, right after Christmas, by getting new tires on our Citation 5th wheel. As I mentioned yesterday, the tread wasn’t bad on the existing tires, but they were just about eight years old, so it was definitely time for new ones. Better safe than sorry – especially with something as important as tires.
The guys used 4 jacks like these 2 to hoist both sides up at once and change tires
The last time I had the 5’er hooked up to the truck was way back in August, on our way home from Erin’s wedding in Alberta. As luck would have it, the rain was coming down yesterday morning when I had to hook-up to take the rig into the tire shop. I used my trusty checklist and everything went smoothly just as it was supposed to. It felt kind of good to be driving down the highway pulling the 5’er again – I was kind of wishing we were heading to the ferry and all set to head south. But, it won’t be long now – just 6 more weeks!
Busy, busy, busy, all 3 guys are working on my installing my new tires
Driving to the tire store, I was trying to figure out just how they were going to do this. Would I have to unhook the 5’er from my truck? Would they do one side at a time? What about my hitch, would it be o.k.? As usual, the pros did it a lot faster, and easier, than anything I had thought of. Two guys just took 4 big jacks, and in just a few minutes, raised the whole 5’er off the ground enough to get all the wheels off. I didn’t have to unhook or anything - pretty slick!
After discussing options with the store manager the other day, and one of the actual tire installers, I opted to buy Wild Country Radial XRT II Light Truck All Season Radials at a cost of $155 each installed. They were the same size(LT 235/85R16) as my old ones. These are not the most expensive tires Kal-Tire sells for sure, but they seemed to me to be the best all-around price performance value. Checking on the Internet, these tires seem to have a good reputation for both reliability and durability.
Just about done, tightening up the lug nuts on the last set of new tires
I thought, for some reason, this was going to be a fairly long process – but it was very fast and I was out of there in under an hour. Tire shops have always fascinated me. They had 3 guys working on my tires – one guy was taking the old tires off the rims, another guy was mounting the new ones while the last guy was doing the balancing. I really like watching the efficiency of workers who really know what they’re doing.
The inside of the Kal-Tire store in Duncan, B.C. – some nice rims!
I drove away from Kal-Tire very happy with the service, the advice and the cost of our tires. Quite frankly, I had expected I might have to pay a lot more. They also told me to drop back in before we headed down south to have the wheels re-torqued just to make sure everything was perfectly o.k. I got a kick out of the tire installer who just “rolled his eyes” when the manager said this.
Right back where I started from in just a little more than an hour and a half!
I also managed to get some more practice in at backing up as I had to park the 5’er in our driveway when I got home. That job seems to be getting easier all the time as I think I’m finally getting used to using the side-mirrors. I only had to pull forward one time this morning before finally got the rig parked.
The rest of the day I just took it easy as Paulette was down in Victoria to go for a walk and coffee with her sister, Arlene. Have a great Friday, and thanks again for visiting!
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